


a name belonging to a different tale

by masamune11



Series: o brother who's not mine [1]
Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bharatayuddha, Bharatayuddha!Karna, FYI Bharatayuddha is the Javanese iteration of Mahabharata, Gen, Kurukshetra War references, Mahabharata!Arjuna, Some parts of the story differs to the Indian Mahabharata, mahabharata - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-25 17:26:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13839531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masamune11/pseuds/masamune11
Summary: The Heroic Spirit Karna does not only belong to the Epic of Mahabharata.—In which Ritsuka Fujimaru summons Karna from Bharatayuddha... where everything ends the same but leaves a different kind of regrets towards the characters.





	a name belonging to a different tale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AriaDream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriaDream/gifts).



> > Bharatayuddha (Sanskrit: भारतयुद्ध;, Bhāratayuddha) or Bharat Yudha (or similar) is a term used in Indonesia for the Kurukshetra War, and to describe the Javanese translation and interpretation of the Mahabharata. The Mahabharata was translated into (old) Javanese under the reign of king Dharmawangsa of Medang (r. 990-1006) [[Source 1: Wikipedia - Bharatayudda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatayuddha)].
> 
> * * *
> 
> This fic is born through this excerpts I read in Quora:
>
>> [...]  
> The most poignant moment in the Indonesian version is the Karna-Arjuna meeting in the eve of Karna's first day as the Kaurava army's commander in chief. Arjuna secretly visits him. He has the most difficult moment in his life. Arjuna suddenly stands in front of him, kneels and greets him respectfully and says clearly, 'Please accept my sincere respects and Pandava's respect to you.' Karna is deeply moved. His eyes are filled with tears. Arjuna proposes to make him the emperor of Hastinapura and hopes that he will join them. They speak emotionally with each other and express love for each other. Finally they decide to adhere by their Kshatriya duties and fight in next day's battle. Then they embrace each other again without a word and Arjuna leaves with Karna's permission.  
> [...]
>> 
>> [[Source 2: What are the differences in the Mahabharata of Indonesia and the Hindu Mahabharata?](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-in-the-Mahabharata-of-Indonesia-and-the-Hindu-Mahabharata)]
> 
>   
> Let's just say that Bharatayuddha is somewhat an AU of Mahabharata, for simplicity sake. (You can find the watered-down summarised list of differences in the [Indonesian Wiki of Karna's entry](https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karna).)
> 
> Additionally, I'm not (yet) fans of Indonesian Shadow Puppet shows (they usually iterate the tale of Baratayddha) as they tend to perform in... Bahasa Jawa... of which I am not fluent (unfortunately). So I cannot verify my own knowledge of the show. I depend heavily on wikipedia and some accounts on the accuracy of Karna's and Arjuna's legends, compounded with my limited knowledge of FGO. Uh yeah. Whoops, my hands just started writing, haha!
> 
> And yeah... it's unbeta'ed at the moment.

His world ended in black, then began anew in white. Betwixt those two moments was a gap that could fit infinity, a thousand remembrances sent out by people, a single person that asked for his help from an age beyond his grasp. A _wish_.

(A summon.)

When he was alive, he never turned anyone’s request of him, even at the cost of his own hardship. He, who was just a child of low social class, knew the repercussions of a rejection, carried it in his heart to remind how no one standing in this world could do anything without another’s help.

Death did not change this.

There were crackles of white lightning that beckoned him to come, to answer the calling of a person before him, as he descended upon the world. Blue eyes glanced at the person who requested his help—one who possessed eyes with a shade like his own—and they remained, measuring the worth of a man who would anchor his presence.

A simple man. (But steadfast, as he would learn about the man later.)

“Servant Lancer. True name, Karna,” he said _almost_ emotionlessly, if not for the small smile that broke out of that lips, “Nice to meet you.”

* * *

The place he was summoned to was both out of loop and time… and out of normal occurrence as well.

When Ritsuka summoned ( _wished_ ) for his presence, part of him wondered if he were to be summoned into one of that so-called Grail War. It turned out that he was summoned to Chaldea for a different purpose… a worthier purpose. He, along with the other servants summoned into this place, was tasked to help his master restore order to humanity’s foundation.

 _Servants_ , plural; Chaldea was full of them—from easternmost to the westernmost of the continent, from the age much like his own to an alternate future that might not happen, from a myth swooned by humans to celebrated humans walking in the annals of history.

And walking among them was a man—servant—he recognized all too well.

“Arjuna,” Karna greeted as he encountered his brother ( _in an existence before_ this) walking out of his room. The white-clad archer stiffened and turned, dark eyes glaring back at him. Karna had grown accustomed to the man’s reaction to this pseudo-life, but he would not deny the irritation gnawing at the edge of his conscience.

(They were supposed to be brothers, weren’t they? With no _Kurukshetra_ at hand, no responsibility to his sworn allegiance, could he not get to know his brother more? Their reconciliation, after all, was nothing but a night before the _Kaurava_ elected him as their commander—a short night filled with mourning, respect, and _love_. So why was Arjuna who stood before him reflected a person before he learned _the truth_?)

“Karna,” his name was uttered coldly, “what are you doing here?”

He ignored the man’s frosty behavior for a moment. Some matters simply took priority over his own confusion, “Ritsuka requests your presence. It seems that we will be put together to hunt for some materials.”

Arjuna clucked his tongue in distaste. “I’d rather team up with those pirate barbarians.”

It made Karna wonder, though, to be put lower than Edward Teach or Francis Drake, because they fought dirty, employing every possible opportunity to fight dishonorably. Karna was anything _but_ , the teachings of his Parashurma forbidding him from going against dharma. “And lower your taste to their level? Your pride will not let you, brother.”

The word had come naturally to him—an endearment that he wanted to try out if only to close the distance between them. And yet, that one word was enough for Arjuna to brutally shove him to the wall. Karna let him because he wanted to observe—to understand such word irritated his brother _to this point_.

“Don’t mock me, Karna,” Arjuna warned, the tone of his voice a shade too _desperate_ … too _angry_. Those qualities lingered in those dark eyes, and Karna wondered how regret wormed its way into his brother’s heart.

(They had fought honorably in that fields of war, after all. Arjuna, who knew that his _brother_ waged war to lead evil to the slaughterhouse. Karna, who trusted his younger brothers to purge the evil from the land. _Kurukshetra_ , the place where they bared those feelings—hopes, aspirations, dreams—so there may be no _regrets_.)

“I never intend to,” he replied, his blue eyes glinting with determination because _it was the truth_ , “because not even death can change what we must be. Even now, our fates dictate us to be brothers, and I shall accept.”

* * *

(Ritsuka asked him whether something happened between him and the archer. The man held promise with those keen eyes of his, because it was only he who noticed Arjuna's unusual frigidity.  As expected of his master.

"I told him the truth," Karna simply replied, "He did not know how to take it."

It left Ritsuka with more questions—ones which the master had to learn to survive with. Fights demanded flexibility and prioritization, after all, and his master wisely chose to focus on the task at hand.)

* * *

The crystal golem was an abomination made of precious _magical_ stones that could explode once it was agitated. Had they been fighting against one, it would not be a problem. Had Ritsuka brought with him more healing-oriented servants, they would not be in this position: Karna, his power tuned down after hacking through an army of crystal golem; Arjuna, worn out with smugness that bounded to crack sooner or later, and; Mash, the young lady whose protection prowess was already at her limit.

They almost died. They didn't, the remains of golems around them flickering in yellow as they started vanishing from the world around them.

For a single moment, Karna noticed how Arjuna sighed and let his guard down, the flex of his muscles relaxing as he realized that the fight had finished—

—and the sound of the grass rustling. Footsteps. A lunge towards the white-clad archer.

Karna launched himself between his brother and the threat, his vision swarming with red and static-white as the last golem stroke at his mana core. He fell gracelessly onto the ground, a hint of gold further decorating the range of his vision.

He was dying all over again.

* * *

Karna acknowledged that there was a presence in his room, despite the stinging and _numbing_ emptiness. As he roused from unconsciousness, though, he noticed that the presence was... of someone he recognized all too well.

Why was Arjuna in his room? Was Karna not his firstmost enemy? (That was the impression that he got anyhow.)

"You're awake," Arjuna stated, his voice amplifying the magnitude of his headache. Karna groaned, holding himself together if only to straighten his body unto the bed headboard. How... how did he get back to his room?

A sigh, a movement; the bed dipped as Arjuna sat next to him. Karna would have let this peculiarity slide if this came from Ritsuka. But this was _Arjuna_ , who had made every day of his life in Chaldea the enemy of Karna, son of Surya. If anything, the archer should be moving away from him. Hell, he should not be _here_ in the first place.

Somehow, the conundrum stopped his headache altogether, making it easy for Karna to focus.

"You saved me," Arjuna started. The words themselves were enough to turn Karna's attention towards the archer, not because of such direct admittance... but because of its awkwardness. The archer was never that kind of man, not in life... not in this pseudo-life. "You saved me even when I killed you."

He wanted to laugh, but his ribs—where his mana core was protected—would not allow him. Karna settled for a chuckle. "It was war. Us killing each other was necessary... for the greater good. Did we not agree on this, that night when I became the commander of _Kaurava_?"

Arjuna laughed in his place, one that spelled _rage_ and _confusion. "_ Oh _Karna_ ," he grimaced, the tome on his hands (he _was_ reading something after all; Karna had just noticed the book) falling soundlessly on Karna's side. The title of the book, _Bharatayuddha_ , gleamed golden under the light of his room. The legend that celebrated him—

"I am not the Arjuna you knew... just as you are not... _him_."

—the legend he was based on; the story that held a happier, consoling paths than the  _other_.

The Root spoke to him in hushes, whispering the required knowledge to understand Arjuna's context. Then it all clicked together: the reason why Arjuna was in despair, why he looked at him as if Karna was forever the enemy. This Arjuna never had the chance to understand his sworn enemy... not as the oldest brother who was cast away at the behest of their mother's virtue.

Karna reached for his brother's face (Arjuna would forever be his brother, even if he came from an iteration that did not make Karna's legend), persistently locking it so that the other would not run away. Blue eyes stared softly, imagining the hardship that Arjuna had gone through at the revelation of Karna's lineage... guilt that ate him alive as he knew that he had broken one of the sacred _dharmas_  of war: one must not kill his own kin. Seeing Karna, alive and well... the victim of his murder...

Perhaps that passive-aggressiveness was born from Arjuna's pleas to ask forgiveness, barred by his own pride and guilt.

"I am sorry that he could not learn to know you, just as I learned to know him," Karna spoke sorrowfully, "I am sorry that you could not find peace in his death. I am sorry that he could not be the brother you need."

(Because what was the _Kurukshetra War_ , if not the accumulation of misunderstandings, blackened with _vices_? This Arjuna was not strong enough to be granted the truth to prevent the misunderstandings. His Karna was too naive, thinking that the secret he carried—the _revelation_ of it—would not cause his family's unforeseen _grief_.)

"Don't apologize, pretender," Arjuna hoarsely rebuked, "Don't speak as if you know him, not with that visage—"

And Karna's heart _broke_ , because the Throne of Heroes would forever keep this Arjuna, anguished and _in pain_ , never to find solace in his history... never to be at peace with his _deeds_. So he pulled the archer down so that he could embrace the little brother that was not his. Arjuna fought his grip, but the fight was weak. Whatever fury that Arjuna had prepared was smote down by legions of despair and hurt.

"I am Karna, the _Suryaatmaja_ , the Son of Sun, the one who accepted death by your hand if only to smite the evil that my beloved friend harbored," he softly declared, "and I forgive you, Arjuna."

A single sob, followed by another, because Karna knew that he was fulfilling Arjuna's need for peace... and salvation.

**Author's Note:**

> In Mahabharata, the identity of Karna as the oldest brother of the Pandava Five was revealed after his death. This caused grief to Arjuna, as he broke the dharma of war for having killed his kin in coward's way, so much that Arjuna willingly adopted Karna's children who were bereft of his brother.
> 
> Somewhere in Bharatayuddha, Karna's identity was revealed long before the war (something about him stealing his best friend's bride, was caught eloping by Arjuna of all people, fighting through some insurgency, divine intervention by one and only Batara Narada, and then tadaaa... the story of Karna's past, revealed by said Batara). This matters, because in the Mahabharata, the one who reveals his parentage was Kreshna... in private. The Pandawa Five certainly do not know, so it's not possible for a secret rendezvous (as depicted at the beginning notes) to happen at all.
> 
> * * *
> 
> This work is dedicted for AriaDream, whose works introduce me to that rare-pair Diarmuid and Emiya (wonderful idea) and become the deciding factor for me to play FGO because the many portrayals of Karna and Arjuna in her fics. Don't stop writing, man, your writing is beautiful.


End file.
